Energy giant SSE expects its profits to increase by 8.8pc to £1.54bn this year, after raising household prices by 8.2pc - despite customers using less electricity and gas.

In a trading statement likely to fuel consumer anger over rising energy bills, SSE, which has increased its adjusted profits and dividend every year since it was formed, said it also expected to increase payouts to shareholders by 3pc.

The supplier was the first to raise household prices this winter, increasing them by 8.2pc from mid-November after claiming it was “sorry” to do so but had no choice because of rising costs.

It is also last to pass on an agreed reduction in prices after a deal with the government to reduce levies paid for on energy bills, with a promised 3.5pc reduction only coming into effect from late March.

SSE also warned it was reviewing all its planned offshore wind projects after two massive wind farms - estimated to have a combined cost of at least £4bn - were not granted early subsidy contracts from the government. It also said its overall investment levels would fall from 2015.

“The prospects for investment in generation assets in Great Britain are not encouraging,” it said, warning that important details needed to invest were yet to be confirmed.

In its statement, SSE said it expects to deliver “an increase in adjusted profit before tax which is in line with the consensus of analysts' forecasts” of £1,535m. That would be an 8.8pc rise against £1,410.7m reported last year.

The company said its household supply arm, which saw a £115.4m operating loss for the first half of the year, was now expected to return a profit for the full year.

SSE's electricity networks business and its North Sea gas field operations are also expected to have increased profits.

The forecast of profit and dividend increase - despite both declining energy usage and customer numbers - drew swift criticism from the Labour party and consumer groups.

“Yet again we see an energy company increasing its profits and payouts to shareholders on the back of spiralling bills for hard-pressed consumers," Caroline Flint, Labour's shadow energy secretary, said.

Richard Hall, director of strategic infrastructure at Consumer Futures, said: "The increase in SSE profits contrasts with declining affordability. The sector is riding out tough economic times better than its customers are, so there’s a pressing need to help the latter. It should offer customers respite by bringing forward its price cut to an earlier date."

SSE said electricity consumption fell 4.3pc in the nine months to the end of December while gas consumption fell 9.5pc.

The company also lost about 250,000 customers accounts. It now has 9.22m customer electricity and gas accounts, or almost 5m households.

Alistair Phillips-Davies, Chief Executive of SSE, said: “It is encouraging that SSE is on course to deliver real growth in the dividend and increases in adjusted earnings per share and adjusted profit before tax.”

He claimed he was also “very encouraged that this is a financial year in which the concerns of bill-payers have been put at the heart of the debate about how to meet the country's energy needs”.

Mr Phillips-Davies reiterated calls for all green levies on energy bills to be funded from general taxation instead.

SSE also warned that its investment rate – which has historically been between £1.5bn and £1.7bn a year – was likely to decline in the five years from 2015.

It announced “a wide ranging review of its offshore wind development portfolio by the end of this financial year” after the proposed Galloper and Beatrice offshore wind farms were not deemed “provisionally affordable” and eligible for early subsidy contracts by the government.

“This is one example of why there is greater uncertainty about the shape and extent of SSE's capital and investment programme in the five years from 2015, and it is likely to be lower than the £1.5bn to £1.7bn range invested in each of the years since 2010,” it said.